Back in 2013, Rob Thomas started up a Kickstarter campaign to fund a movie revival of his fan-favorite mystery dramedy series Veronica Mars which had been cancelled in 2007 after three seasons. His goal was to raise $2 million to produce the film, which he achieved in eleven hours. Ultimately, the campaign brought in $5.7 million and plans for the movie went forward, causing a stir in the entertainment industry. All of a sudden, there were talks of quite a number of other shows that could be revived by Kickstarter including genre entries Chuck, Pushing Daisies, and even Firefly. But nothing ever came of this and the crowd-funding initiative eventually died out. So why, after so much energy and such high hopes were put into this initiative, did almost no sci fi TV shows get revived this way? Over this series of articles, I will be looking back at what happened and which shows had the potential for a revival.
How Did Rob Thomas Get the Veronica Mars Movie Made?
Kickstarter had been around since 2009 and had started to really make a name for itself by the time Rob Thomas came up with the innovative idea of using that crowd-funding site to raise the money to continue the Veronica Mars story. Wisely, he set his goals low to begin with, figuring that he could pull together a movie for about $2 million at that time. The average television drama cost about that much then, and this was a former CW show, so it was produced on even less. Thomas also worked out a deal with Warner Bros. (the studio that owned the series) and they agreed to pay for the marketing, promotion, and distribution of the film if he could raise the money for the production costs.
There are two important things to take into consideration on how this was all pulled off successfully. The creator of the series (with strong support from star Kristin Bell) led the initiative. And the studio was onboard and willing to kick in the extra money for promotion and distribution. This was not a fan-led campaign trying to raise money on their own without the involvement of the cast, creative team, and/or studio. Also, the film could be done on a budget that was within the scope of a crowd-funding campaign. These factors definitely came into play when other Kickstarter initiatives were batted about.
What Were the Immediate Repercussions of the Veronica Mars Movie Success?
Immediately after the Veronica Mars movie met its funding goal, a buzz started in the industry with several key players suggesting other projects that could be financed the same way. Zach Levi started talking about a Chuck movie, Bryan Fuller floated the idea of a Pushing Daisies and/or a Wonderfalls film, and Firefly fans of course hoped this might be a way to bring back that series. But even though Thomas managed to successfully fund his film and other actors/creators were onboard to back their own initiatives, studio and network execs never got too enthused about this way of reviving properties they had previously cut loose.
A Rob Thomas can raise all the money he wants by Kickstarter and a Zach Levi can talk until he is blue in the face about a Chuck movie, but at some point the bigwigs have to give the greenlight. Fortunately for Thomas, Warner Bros. was onboard with what he was doing. But for the other potential revival candidates, there appeared to be less interest from the execs making the final call. And money was definitely a factor as well. As mentioned, the Veronica Mars film could have happened on a budget of only $2 million, though fans proved more than willing to contribute more. The $5+ million that Thomas collected might have financed a Chuck movie, but Bryan Fuller indicated that a Pushing Daisies film would cost considerably more.
After a year or so of excitement across the fanbase, during which shows like Stargate, Farscape, and Firefly were mentioned, enthusiasm for a Kickstarter revival of shows started to wane. Nothing substantial materialized on this front during that time and it became apparent that what Rob Thomas accomplished was the exception and not the rule. A couple of years later, Joel Hodgson did launch a successful campaign to fund an eleventh season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. But that was another case where everything fell into place: Hodgson owned the rights to the show and it is inexpensive to produce. Still, it does prove that crowd-funding can provide a viable option in the right circumstances.
These days there is very little talk of shows getting a Kickstarter revival. And even if there was a successful campaign, a one-off movie is likely the best that can be hoped for. In the next post, I look at the shows that had a chance of getting revived during the Kickstarter craze as well as several that were nothing more than fan pipe dreams.
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